Physical trainer having pedals moving along an elliptical route

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a physical trainer having pedals moving along an elliptical route with little shock applied to a user&#39;s knee joints even though the user takes exercise for a long time. In the physical trainer having the pedals moving along the elliptical route, rotary grips are connected to pedal supporting means by connecting members of a joint type, shock absorbing bars are mounted between the connecting members and the rotary grips, and thereby the shock absorbing bars are in interlock with a motion of the pedals and perform a repeated piston motion that the shock absorbing bars are inserted into or removed from the connecting members. In the physical trainer, braking means may be further include for adjusting a rotational speed of a sprocket connected to the pedal supporting means. According to the physical trainer, the shock transferred to the user&#39;s knee joints is considerably reduced in comparison with the typical physical trainer, and thus, the user can enjoy exercise in comfort for a long time.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention relates to a physical trainer, and more particularly, to a physical trainer, of which pedals move along an elliptical route.

[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art

[0004] In general, exercises are largely divided into an indoor exercise and an outdoor exercise. The outdoor exercise is preferable, but the indoor exercise has been spread in respect to do regularly and easily and to make use of leisure time. For such indoor exercise, a user can exercise with or without exercising machines, however, the use of the exercising machines reduces the tediousness and heightens the exercising effects. Thus, presently, indoor physical trainers of various types have been developed.

[0005] There are an indoor bicycle and a stepper as typical devices, which have a pedal structure, of such indoor physical trainers. Because the indoor bicycle has a structure that a general bicycle is mounted on a base in such a manner that wheels float in the air, the wheels rotate idly without contact with the ground, so that the user can ride on the bicycle in a restricted space. The stepper, which is a substitution of so-called a running machine, is to allow the user to take a walking exercise while stepping the right and left pedals.

[0006] However, because such indoor bicycle and stepper have the pedals moving along a round route or moving vertically, there is a disadvantage to strengthen only muscle of a specific part of the user's body and it may injure knee joints by applying excessive strength to the knee joints.

[0007] To overcome the above disadvantages, a physical trainer having pedals moving along an elliptical route similar to the route of the user's foot when a person walks outdoors has been known. However, such physical trainer has a problem that excessive shock is applied to the user's knee joints.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0008] It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a physical trainer, which allows a user to take exercise for a long time without applying shock to the user's knee joints.

[0009] It is another object of the present invention to provide a physical trainer having braking means for adjusting an advancing speed of pedals according to the strength of exercise required by the user.

[0010] To achieve the above objects, the present invention provides a physical trainer having pedals moving along an elliptical route, wherein rotary grips are connected to pedal supporting means by connecting members of a joint type and shock absorbing bars are mounted between the connecting member of the joint type and the rotary grip, and thereby a piston motion is performed repeatedly in such a manner that the shock absorbing bars are inserted into or removed from the connecting members in interlock with the motion of the pedals.

[0011] Moreover, the physical trainer according to the present invention further includes braking means for adjusting a rotational speed of a sprocket connected to the pedal supporting means.

[0012] Furthermore, in case of using the physical trainer according to the present invention, the shock transferred to the user's knee joints is considerably reduced in comparison with the conventional physical trainer, and thus, the user can enjoy exercise in comfort for a long time.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

[0013] Further objects and advantages of the invention can be more fully understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which:

[0014]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a physical trainer according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0015] The present invention will now be described in detail in connection with a preferred embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawing.

[0016]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a physical trainer according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the physical trainer according to the present invention includes a base 100, a frame 110 mounted on an upper surface of the base 100 and having a pair of fixing members 112 a and 112 b, a rotary shaft 142 mounted on the upper surface of the base 100 and rotatably mounted on a supporting member 150 and passing through a sprocket 122 mounted on an external surface thereof, braking means 120 connected to the sprocket 122 by rotary power transmitting means, and a pair of pedal supporting means 140 a and 140 b mounted between the rotary shaft 142 and the fixing members 112 a and 112 b disposed on the frame 110.

[0017] The frame 110 includes a pair of rotary grips 114 a and 114 b axially mounted on the frame 110 by the fixing members 112 a and 112 b in a rotatable manner. If necessary, the frame 110 may further include a fixed grip 116 fixed and mounted on a side of the frame 110. Furthermore, the frame 110 may further include detecting means (not shown), such as a digital tachometer, for detecting the rotation number and a rotational speed of the pedals, and a display device 118 for displaying the rotation number and the rotational speed of the pedals output from the detecting means. Especially, the grips 114 and 116 attached on the frame 110 may be in a rotary type or a fixed type, which may have various forms, and thus, the grips described in the present invention are not to be restricted by the embodiment.

[0018] The respective pedal supporting means 140 a and 140 b include a pair of first arms 143 a and 143 b having an end rotatably mounted on the rotary shaft 142 rotatably mounted on the supporting member 150, and a pair of connecting bars 147 a and 147 b having an end rotatably mounted on the other end of the first arms 143 a and 143 b and the other end fixed on rotary grip connecting members 145 a and 145 b. The rotary grips 114 a and 114 b have an end rotatably mounted on the fixing members 112 a and 112 b of the frame 100 and the other end having shock absorbing bars 148 a and 148 b extending to the inside of the rotary grip connecting members 145 a and 145 b. The shock absorbing bars 148 a and 148 b mounted on the rotary grips 114 a and 114 b perform a repeated operation in such a manner that the shock absorbing bars 148 a and 148 b are inserted into or protruded from the rotary grip connecting members 145 a and 145 b in interlock with the first arms 143 a and 143 b, the connecting bars 147 a and 147 b and the rotary grips 114 a and 114 b, i.e., a piston motion.

[0019] That is, the rotary grips 114 a and 114 b are always not in contact with the rotary grip connecting members 145 a and 145 b, but the rotary grips 114 a and 114 b are repeatedly attached to and separated from the rotary grip connecting members 145 a and 145 b in a prescribed interval by the piston motion of the shock absorbing bars 148 a and 148 b when the user steps the pedals 160 a and 160 b, and thereby the shock applied to the user's joints can be minimized.

[0020] The pedals 160 a and 160 b mounted on the upper surfaces of the connecting bars 147 a and 147 b move forming an elliptical route in interlock with the first arms 143 a and 143 b, the connecting bars 147 a and 147 b and the rotary grips 114 a and 114 b.

[0021] The braking means 120 includes a sprocket 122 and locomotion loading means 124 connected to the sprocket 122 by rotary power transmitting means, for example, a belt or a chain. Because the locomotion loading means 124 is coupled with the sprocket 122 by a small gear (not shown) of the rear portion thereof, the rotational speed of the sprocket 122 is reduced when the braking means 120 is located to be in contact with the locomotion loading means 124, and thereby the magnitude of force required when the user steps the pedals 160 a and 160 b is changed so as to adjust the strength of the exercise.

[0022] An operational principle of the physical trainer according to the present invention will be described hereinafter.

[0023] First, when the user presses one 160 b of the pedals 160 a and 160 b in the state that the user steps the pedals 160 a and 160 b with the feet, the pressed pedal 160 b directs downwardly while advancing to the frame 100, and at the same time, the first arm 143 b mounted to rotate with the connecting bar 147 b, which is in contact with the pedal 160 b, is also rotated in a clockwise direction, and also the rotary grip 114 b rotatably mounted on the frame 100 is moved forwardly while rotating. As described above, when the first arm 143 b and the rotary grip 114 b are rotated slowly by the pressed pedal 160 b, also the shock absorbing bar 148 b, which is completely inserted into the rotary grip connecting member 145 b fixed on the connecting bar 147 b is slowly removed from the connecting member 145 b.

[0024] After that, when the pedal 160 b arrives at the lowest point (at this time, the shock absorbing bar 148 b is removed and projected from the rotary grip connecting member 145 b to the utmost), the pedal 160 b changes the movement direction. At this time, the shock is applied to the user's knee joints, but when the movement direction is changed when the pedal 160 b is arrived at the lowest point, the shock absorbing bar 148 b projected from the rotary grip connecting member 145 b to the utmost is gradually rotated and inserted into the rotary grip connecting member 145 b, and thereby, the shock applied to the user's knee joints is considerably reduced in comparison with the conventional physical trainers.

[0025] When the pedal 160 b arrives at the lowest point, the user steps the other pedal 160 a opposed to the pedal 160 b, and thus, the other pedal supporting means 140 a is operated in the same manner as the above. The operation is continued until the pedal 160 a (presently, pressed by the user) arrives at the lowest point, that is, until the pedal 160 opposed to the pedal 160 a arrives at the highest point. As the result, the movement route of the pedals 160 a and 160 b form an ellipse, and the user can exercise while using muscles of the lower part of the body evenly.

[0026] Especially, it is also possible that the user does exercise of the upper part of the body while stepping the pedals 160 a and 160 b with the feet and crossing the user's arms using the rotary grips 114 a and 114 b rotatably mounted on the fixing members 112 a and 112 b of the frame 100. The series of motions that the user operates the rotary grips 114 a and 114 b with the arms while stepping the pedals 160 a and 160 b with the feet are very similar to the motion that a person walks while shaking the arms. Furthermore, the fixed grip 116 fixed on the frame 100 serves to support and guide the user's exercise position in a stable condition.

[0027] As described above, according to the physical trainer having the pedals moving along the elliptical route, the shock transferred to the user's knee joints is considerably reduced in comparison with the typical physical trainer, and thus, the user can enjoy exercise in comfort for a long time.

[0028] While the present invention has been described with reference to the particular illustrative embodiments, it is not to be restricted by the embodiments but only by the appended claims. It is to be appreciated that those skilled in the art can change or modify the embodiments without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A physical trainer having pedals moving along an elliptical route when a user steps the pedals, the physical trainer comprising: a base; a frame mounted on an upper surface of the base; a rotary shaft rotatably mounted on a supporting member at the upper surface of the base, the rotary shaft passing through a sprocket mounted at an external surface of the rotary shaft; a pair of first arms connected on both sides of the rotary shaft; a pair of pedal supporting means having an end connected to the first arm and the other end connected to a rotary grip connecting member; a pair of pedals mounted on the pedal supporting means respectively; and a pair of rotary grips having an end connected to the rotary grip connecting member and a central portion connected to the frame by a fixing member, wherein the respective ends of the rotary grips are connected to the rotary grip connecting members by shock absorbing bars, and the shock absorbing bars perform a repeated piston motion in such a manner that the shock absorbing bars are inserted into or removed from the rotary grip connecting members in interlock with the movement of the pedals.
 2. The physical trainer as claimed in claim 1, further comprising braking means for adjusting a rotational speed of the sprocket connected to the rotary shaft. 